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Orders From the Top
}} Thor welcomes Minrah to Valhalla, and informs Durkon of an important task. Cast * Durkon Thundershield (as spirit) ◀ ▶ * Minrah Shaleshoe (as spirit) ◀ ▶ * Thor ◀ ▶ * Four Bariaurs Transcript Thor: Sorry about letting you hang for a bit when you arrived, Durkon. Thor: But in all fairness, you really took your sweet time getting up here. Thor: When did you croak, like five and a half years ago? Durkon: Uh, I think it were only aboot a week, me lord. Thor: Well still. Took Forever. Durkon: Apologies, Lord Thor. It took time ta figure out what ta show me—I mean 'im—I mean— Thor: Nah, it's cool. Sorry right back at you for not being able to help you out inside you head. Durkon: Och, it's fine, me lord. I cannae expect ye ta fight me battles fer me. Thor: Unfortunately, I'm going to have to ask you to fight a battle for me, at least figuratively speaking. Thor: That's why I needed to know before I revealed my presence if you intended to return to the Prime if your friends call: Thor: I have a task for you. Thor: And I didn't want you to feel like I was ordering you to not enter Valhalla. Minrah: My lord, we are your servants! Should we not gladly accept your orders? Thor: Yeah, but I still felt weird about it. Like I'd be yanking the prize away after he finished the race. Durkon: Lord Thor, ye'd haf to order me na ta go back, wha wit all tha's goin' on. Me friends—and me son—need me. Thor: Good, good. Thor: Mazel tov on the dad thing, by the way. Thor: Which reminds me: Minrah, you've been pre-cleared to enter Valhalla whenever you're ready. Thor: In fact, my deva told me I was supposed to give you this coupon for a free drink upgrade on account of you being killed by a cleric of Loki. Minrah: Oh thank you, my lord! But...um...how do I...? Thor: Oh, Valhalla is right down there. Just give your name to the bariaur with the pink hair and she'll let you in. The panel portrays Durkon, Minrah, and Thor standing on a cloud, with a rainbow bridge stretching down from the cloud to snowy landscape. On the snowy landscape is a castle built into a mountain, with a gateway and towers, and other buildings on the mountain on the right side. Four figures stand before the gate. Durkon: *gasp!* Tha trees! Thar attackin' Valhalla! Minrah: We have to defend it!! Thor: Ugh, can't a guy zap a pine or two without everybody making a whole dogma out of it? D&D Context * In panel 5 Thor refers to returning to "the Prime". This is in reference to the Prime Material Plane, which is the central plane of existence in D&D cosmology, i.e. the world on which Order of the Stick occurs. In some versions of the D&D cosmology there are many Material Planes (corresponding to different worlds), and so the plane from whence a character hails is the Prime Material Plane. In other versions (e.g. Planescape, Spelljammer), there is only one Material Plane with many worlds in it. However, even in this case the Material Plane is often referred to as the Prime Material Plane, or just the Prime. It is interesting to note that the Bifrost bridge (see below) in Order of the Stick ''does not seem to connect to Midgard (the earth) which would correspond to the Prime Material Plane, but rather to the clouds that Durkon and Minrah appeared on after dying. * Devas are a type of angel in D&D 3.5. They were first published for AD&D (1st edition) in Dragon #62 in 1982 and were updated for D&D 3.5 in the 2003 ''Monster Manual. That a deva should control entrance to Valhalla shows that it is located on one of the Outer Planes of a Good alignment. Another deva adjudicated Roy's admittance into Celestia. * Bariaurs are a race of creatures which resemble centaurs except that their bodies are those of goats or bighorn sheep. Males have horns on their heads. They are native of the plane of Ysgard, one of the Outer Planes in the D&D cosmology. This seems to confirm that Valhalla in Order of the Stick is located in the first layer of Ysgard as posited by 1st and 2nd edition sources, though 3rd edition sources only place it in an alternate Norse cosmology. Bariaurs were first published in the 1991 AD&D 2nd Edition Monstrous Compendium: Outer Planes Appendix. They were expanded and made into one of three new playable races presented in the 1994 Planescape campaign setting, part of a major overhaul of the Outer Planes in D&D. They were updated for D&D 3.5 in the 2003 Book of Exalted Deeds. Never a popular race, bariaurs have not been updated for later editions of the game, unlike their companion Planescape race, the Tiefling, which became a standard Players Handbook player character race in 4th and 5th editions. Trivia * Thor notes that it's been five and a half years since Durkon's death, while perhaps just a joke for the reader's benefit, it could also mean Thor experiences time the same way the reader does (#877 was published in 2013), in contrast to the passage of time in-story (Durkon's vampirization occurred only a week or so before this strip in the Order of the Stick world). * Mazel tov is a Jewish phase expressing congratulations and a wish of good fortune. * The rainbow bridge leading to Valhalla is the Bifrost, the bridge connecting Midgard and Asgard in Norse mythology. * The last panel is a reference to a running gag about Dwarves' belief that trees are evil, because Thor smites them with lightning all the time. This dogma with Thor smiting trees as evidence is explained by Durkon in #150 (note that the tree being smitten does not resemble a pine tree). External Links * 1136}} View the comic * 567032}} View the discussion thread